Oh great, Microsoft reportedly hikes Windows 11 licence prices to potentially bring more pain to laptop buyers

Oh great, Microsoft reportedly hikes Windows 11 licence prices to potentially bring more pain to laptop buyers

By Darren Allan
Publication Date: 2026-08-10 15:59:00


  • Microsoft has hiked the cost of a Windows 11 license for PC makers
  • A new report claims that the annual price increase is ‘significantly’ more this year
  • That’s really not going to help the PC market, coming on top of all the pain with hardware price rises that we’re already experiencing

PC prices are already facing various unfortunate pressures — thanks to the RAM crisis, and other increased component costs aside from memory –— but it appears that Microsoft is throwing fuel on the fire with hikes on the software side.

Wccftech spotted a report from Economic Daily News (EDN), a Taiwanese site, claiming that Microsoft has increased the price it charges PC makers for a Windows 11 license. Apparently the cost of installing Windows 11 on a pre-built desktop PC or a laptop has gone up by 7% to 10% as of last month.